Teach Primary Issue 18.7

RESOURCE Arts education offers so many benefits – and we underestimate them at our peril, warns Dr Audrey Tang P eople hate what they don’t understand,” said actress and theatre director Eva le Gallienne. Could that be why uptake in arts subjects is declining? Arts subjects have been the focus of funding cuts for the last 14 years. The previous government intimated that this was due to a need to reduce revenue flow to what it termed ‘high-cost subjects’. However, I would argue that those high costs (if indeed they exist), often yield high returns. It’s just that it’s not as easy to measure these outcomes with simple statistics. Treading the boards During my time as a secondary drama teacher, I enabled my students to perform extracts from their school production ( Chess ) on the West End Stage. We earned a Guinness World Record being part of the largest number of students speaking Shakespeare at the same time at the Barnet Arts Depot, for Richard III , and performed our ‘school show’ musical ( Jesus Christ Superstar ) at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. These are the things that enable a pupil to stand out from the crowd as they progress through school and college. Furthermore, all those opportunities were made accessible with funding support from the PTA – or ‘simply’ budgeted for. I even offered LAMDA examinations to gifted and talented students, where the only cost would be the examination fee, rather than a private charge of £30 for half an hour (in 2003) – which can make such engagement prohibitive, especially in a state school. Every year, I also produced a staff panto, which contributed to wellbeing and camaraderie in voluntary. Taking into account the hours of teaching, timetable and prepping (and the rest), I once worked out that my hourly pay came to £2.75! With that in mind, let’s look at the benefits participation in the arts can produce, and why arts education should be so much better funded. It’s well-documented that arts programmes (including creative and performing arts) can significantly enhance social inclusion and wellbeing, particularly for marginalised groups. Plus, they have the power to promote social inclusion by providing a space where individuals from diverse backgrounds can come together to connect, collaborate, and learn from one another. Within a production no-one thinks of an ever-demanding profession. This, along with the student charity revue, enabled both staff and pupils to appreciate a different side to each other, which brought a mutual respect that transferred in behaviour across the curriculum. Costs and benefits So much arts teaching is extra-curricular and www.teachwire.net | 33 F EATURE S L E ADERSH I P , AR T S EDUCA T I ON “From primary upwards, the opportunity to work collaboratively on something creative can promote self-expression, teamwork, and problem solving” A precious “